Coming out by Rohit Malik

So, some people know my story. I came out publicly in December 2013, and I’ve often mentioned several times that I came out to my dad even before I came out on Facebook. I get asked how my dad took it, all the time. I was sharing this story personally with someone I know over chat, and she suggested I might as well share it with a wider audience.Here’s what happened.

1. 1

It was 2011, my third year of college. I wasn’t struggling with my identity or anything, but I was going through a phase where I felt I was not being loved. I felt depressed to the point of being suicidal almost every week, and I had come out to a couple of friends in college by then. Every time I felt incredibly depressed, I used coming out as a vent to talk about my issues with someone. And it helped me feel better. At one point, I decided someone from my family should know. It was going to be my mom, sister or my dad. One of them, first. I wasn’t sure about telling my sister then, because she was in college, and my friends suggested it might be too young for her to know about my sexuality then. I also ruled out telling my mom because, at that point, I didn’t want her to be sad about her son being gay. I was already depressed, and wouldn’t have been able to take it if she had struggled to come to terms with it too.